A/N: I would first like to point out specifically that I do not know how recording contracts and things work, so if I get it wrong, please excuse me. While it may not follow the real system, I made it a system in itself and that's good enough for me :P
Hope you like this chapter! I'm so excited, it's finally a long chapter again! =D
Disclaimer: I do NOT own GLEE!
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Santana ended up going back to her apartment after she and Dani laid around for a little longer, and so Dani had been left to herself. She checked her email and saw a new one from the New York producer that had made a deal with her.
Miss Dani Taylor,
We're so glad that you've accepted our deal! If you could please send us a date and time that you could come to our recording studio to set up the finalizing contract, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
-Joshua
The name of this producer was Joshua Vet, and Dani was really excited about meeting him since he'd seemed so nice through the back and forth emails, and since he was clearly one of the only producers that thought her voice was worth money.
She decided to set up the meeting for Monday, since she would have a morning shift, then a spare dance class she picked up from NYADA, and then she'd have time to go to the meeting.
Speaking of that class, the only reason Dani decided to join it was because Santana was in it. Santana apparently had wanted to be a dancer for as long as she could remember, but hadn't really told anyone until she got to New York and she started the class. Santana had been really insistent on her joining. And it wasn't like there was a downside to dancing with her girlfriend.
After she sent out an email to Joshua, she decided to continue being productive and practiced her original song for a little bit, adding a few lines and making it sound more unique. She really wanted her song to be epic, especially if it was going to end up being her first single released.
Dani had never really realized how boring being alone was until she started dating Santana. When she wasn't with her girlfriend, she felt empty and bored and just... lonely. She considered calling or texting Santana, but she really didn't want to seem clingy.
She managed to push down her clingy-ness and went the rest of the day practicing her song until she finally went to sleep.
The next morning was rushed, because she somehow slept in and had barely ten minutes to change into her work uniform and run down the few blocks it took her to get to the diner.
She didn't have that shift with Santana, Rachel or Kurt, so she spent the whole time daydreaming about Santana while she worked. By the time her shift came, she was freaking excited to get to her dance class.
She walked back to her apartment, changed, and then drove to NYADA and to the class.
When she got there, she immediately saw Santana standing on the side of the room with black yoga pants and a black tank on. Dani quickly made her way over to her girlfriend, who was facing away from her, and wrapped her arms around her waist.
Santana jumped, but then relaxed into her embrace. "Mm, hey," Dani mumbled.
"You came!" Santana exclaimed, turning around.
"Did you think I wouldn't?" Dani asked with a chuckle. Santana just shrugged.
Their dance teacher came in and began giving them instructions. Find a dance partner and practice some dance that Dani didn't know.
Santana immediately look the blonde's hand and began to lead her around the dance floor. Evidently, the class had already learned this dance. Dani, however, kept tripping over her feet. "I don't know why I let you talk me into this. I am a horrible dancer."
"You're not that bad," Santana argued.
Dani rolled her eyes. "You're just saying that because you feel obligated."
"Maybe," Santana agreed with a wink.
"Uh!" Dani exclaimed with a laugh, playfully hitting Santana's arm. "Well, at least I'm better at singing than I am dancing!"
"When are you going to sign that contract with the producer?" Santana asked as she twirled Dani.
"After this class," Dani replied as she settled back into Santana's arms, trying to follow the Latina's steps.
"Good, so by tonight you will officially be able to record and produce your very own single!" Santana fangirled.
Dani smiled and rolled her eyes playfully. "Yes." They were silent for a moment as they danced. "Oh hey, I had a random question to ask you."
"Yep?"
"Do you speak Spanish?"
Santana smiled widely. "Si!"
"Oh my gosh, Spanish is like the sexiest language ever! Why didn't I know this already?" Dani whined.
Santana buried her face in Dani's neck as she continued to lead the blonde, and she began to mumble things in Spanish to her. Dani had no idea what the Latina was saying, all she knew was that Santana sounded even more beautiful and perfect when she spoke Spanish than when she spoke English.
The dance class was over all too soon, and Dani gave Santana a kiss goodbye before getting into her car and driving to the address of the studio. It was the fifth floor of one of the sky rise buildings nearer to the middle of the city.
She parallel parked her car on the street and started the meter before heading inside. She glanced around and saw many business looking people walking around with purposeful looks or talking on the phone seriously.
She approached one of the people. "Excuse me, where are the elevators?"
The woman gave her an annoyed look and pointed off towards a hallway that left the main entrance area.
"Thanks," Dani grumbled with a slight roll of her eyes, before turning towards the hallway and entered it. There were three elevators lined up on the wall of the elevators and a bathroom at the end of the hallway.
The blonde clicked the up arrow and one of the elevators opened.
Dani hated elevators. She'd literally been terrified of them since she was five years old and she got stuck in one. She and her parents had been staying in a hotel in some city they'd gone to visit, and her mom had sent her upstairs to the room while she and Dani's dad were going to talk to the management.
Well, the elevator she had gotten in to stopped working halfway up the tall building, and she had been stuck in there for nearly two hours. Ever since then, she would climb up ten flights of stairs before she would take an elevator, except in desperate measures. She was lucky to have moved into an apartment building where the elevator never worked, and so she had excuse to use the stairs all the time.
But she didn't see any stairs, and she really didn't want to be sweating and breathing heavily when she first met Joshua. She took a breath and stepped into the elevator. She clicked the button for floor five and stood there stiffly as the elevator rose up. When it stopped and dinged, the doors sliding open, she let out a breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding.
She stepped out onto the fifth floor. In front of her was a secretary sitting at a desk in a small room. She was a young girl, probably not much older than Dani, with dark brown hair and fair skin. "Are you Danielle Taylor?"
"Yes," Dani answered.
"I'm Isabelle," the girl introduced. Dani raised her eyebrow. "Oh, Mr. Vet is in his office. Just through that door and down the hall until you see the door labeled with his name."
"Thanks," Dani said, turning and heading through the door. She didn't miss Isabelle's eyes lingering on her, and she felt slightly uncomfortable as those dark eyes watched her.
The blonde quickly found the door labeled "Joshua Vet" and gave it a light knock. "Come in!" came a male voice.
Dani opened the door and stepped into the office. Joshua sat behind a desk. He had sleek black hair and warm brown eyes. He was also relatively young, probably around twenty-nine.
"Dani!" Joshua exclaimed, standing with a smile. He outstretched a hand and Dani approached him and shook it. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Vet," Dani said politely.
"Please, call me Joshua! Have a seat, have a seat!" Joshua exclaimed enthusiastically. He began gathering up a couple of papers. "We are very, very excited to have you on contract, Dani! Honestly, it's hard to find someone with such raw talent such as yours!"
They proceeded to sign some papers and discuss terms of the contract. When the contract was finally signed, Joshua told Dani that she should come into the studio on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It was about an hour and a half after Dani had arrived that she left.
On her way home, she took out her phone and called her girlfriend. "Hey, babe!"
"Hey Santana," Dani responded, smiling. "I officially have a recording contract!"
Santana squealed and Dani laughed. "We have to celebrate!"
"Weren't we celebrating on Saturday?" Dani asked with a chuckle.
"There's never too much celebrating!" Santana argued. "Plus, we both work at the diner tomorrow night which means if we stay up later tonight it won't matter!"
"Rachel and Kurt work in the morning," Dani pointed out.
"Then we'll go to your place."
"My place is so boring!"
"It won't be if I'm there," Santana husked. Dani's eyes widened.
"Santana I'm trying to drive!"
Santana laughed. "Please! I feel Dani-deprived!"
"You just saw me earlier," Dani argued, but she already knew that she was going to end up saying yes to her girlfriend.
"Please!" Santana whined.
"Fine," Dani agreed with an eye roll as she pulled into the street where her apartment building is.
"Good because I'm already here," Santana responded.
Dani laughed. "Why?" she asked as she parked her car and got out, walking into her apartment building and climbing up the stairs.
"I got out of work early and wanted to come surprise you!" Santana explained happily. Dani opened her door and saw Santana sitting on her couch. The Latina turned around and smiled at the blonde. They both hung up their phones.
"Hey, sexy lady," Santana greeted, wiggling her eyebrows playfully. Dani dropped her purse and phone on her table and then plopped down the couch next to Santana.
"How was work?" Dani asked, crawling up into Santana's arms.
"Boring," Santana admitted. "You weren't there."
"Aw you missed me," Dani teased, tapping her finger on Santana's nose, which crinkled.
"Babe, a minute doesn't go by when you're gone without me missing you," Santana insisted, pressing a sweet kiss to her girlfriend's lips softly.
"Do you think we're too clingy with each other?" Dani asked quietly.
Santana quirked up an eyebrow. "No, I don't. I think it's good that we're so close. And it's not like we can't function away from each other."
"True," Dani agreed. "I just... I guess I've just never felt this way before."
"I'll be honest with you," Santana whispered sweetly. "I've been in love before, but it was never this intense or fast. I've never felt so good from just looking at someone before."
"I love you so much," Dani mumbled as she buried her face in Santana's neck.
"Te amo, hermosa," Santana replied. Dani smiled against Santana's skin.
"You are seriously the most perfect person I have ever met," Dani whispered. "I have no idea how I managed to find you."
"I guess we can sort of thank Gunther for that," Santana joked.
Dani laughed. "Or the boss at my last job."
"This could keep going forever," Santana groaned playfully. "I think we were just fated to meet."
"Duh," Dani agreed with a dopey smile.
They talked for a little while longer before they ordered takeout and pretty much just hung out and talked for the rest of the night. Dani loved nights like this, because she got introduced to new, small aspects of Santana. She found more and more things to fall in love with about her girlfriend.
The next morning, Santana had some spare vocal class that she had picked up from NYADA, so she left pretty early, leaving Dani to lay around for the rest of the day until their shared shift later.
It was five o'clock when Dani walked through the doors of the diner, in her cute little red outfit and long boots, and she tied on her white skirt apron. There was a cheery tune playing through the speakers, but it wasn't very loud and mostly all that could be heard was the chatting of the customers and the sound of food cooking.
Dani guessed that Santana wasn't here yet, since the Latina had a bad habit of being a few minutes late.
Gunther called to the blonde, "Dani! Congratz on the contract!"
"Thanks, Gunther!" Dani called with a smile.
Santana came in a few minutes later and Gunther immediately got onto her for being late, but Santana ignored him and went straight to Dani for a quick kiss before she began working.
Dani was sort of zoned out as she worked. She kept exchanging glances with her girlfriend, and she paid attention to the customers but only the minimum requirement, like being able to take orders and answer questions.
And then she approached a table where a middle aged couple sat talking quietly. She stopped by the table and said, "What can I get you guys?"
The man's head swung around up to Dani, his eyes wide. Dani's heart rate increased and she felt her entire body stiffen. The woman's eyes slowly raised up to the blonde.
No, no, no, they can't be here... they can't be here, she thought to herself.
"Danielle...?" the man asked quietly.
"Dani," Dani corrected stiffly. "What can I get you guys?"
Dani hadn't had a panic attack in years. The last one she'd had was when she got stuck in that elevator at age five, and she could barely remember it. But she felt one creeping up on her. She couldn't have a panic attack right now, and not here.
"We uh... still need a minute," Dani's mother choked out.
Dani nodded and turned around, hurrying away from the table. She pushed by the other waiters and went into the back room of the diner, the same room where she'd told Santana that she loved her.
She felt her breaths increasing, her heart pounding in her chest. She was going to have a panic attack if she didn't calm down.
"Dani?" Santana asked, hurrying into the back room. "Are you okay, babe?"
Dani shook her head furiously. "M-my p-parents..."
"Whoa, slow down," Santana said softly, placing her hands on Dani's arms. "Take a deep breath."
Dani squeezed her eyes shut and felt a few tears fall. She took a deep, long breath, and then exhaled. She felt more calm already.
"Now tell me what happened."
"My parents are sitting at table five," Dani forced out. Santana's eyes widened.
"Did they know you were here?" she asked, confused.
Dani shook her head again. "No, they just saw me and I freaked out and they said they were probably freaking out internally too. I can't... I can't wait on them."
Santana gave her a sympathetic smile. "Babe, I'll take table five, okay?"
"Really?"
"Really," Santana assured. "I love you, okay?"
"I love you too," Dani answered with a sigh. They hugged each other tightly and then they left the back room.
Dani went to a table that was in her section, and only a few tables away from her parents. She saw Santana go up to them and heard what was said.
"You guys ready to order something now?" Santana asked the couple.
"Where's our waitress?" Dani's mother asked stiffly.
"Switched sections. Can I get you something?" Santana repeated her question.
"Can we get switched to her section? It's really important that we speak to her," Dani's father said adamantly.
"Sorry, her section is full. And I'm sure whatever you have to say to her isn't important enough to disrupt her work," Santana muttered with a slight hint of bitterness that Dani could hear. "Kind of like how you're disrupting my work. Can I get you something to eat?"
They finally ordered and then Santana gave them a prize-worthy, fake smile and turned and walked to turn the order into the kitchen.
Dani finished with a couple other tables and then went back to the kitchen as well. She saw Santana grabbing some plates to bring to someone else. "Thank you," Dani said.
Santana gave her a sweet smile. "No problem, love."
Dani felt her whole body warm up and her heart flutter. "I don't know what I would do without you."
"Masturbate?" Santana asked quietly as she walked by the blonde with her tray of plates.
"Santana!" Dani exclaimed with a blush. The Latina turned back to her and winked at the blonde.
For the rest of her shift, Dani didn't even glance at the table where her parents were sitting, and at one point she saw them leaving the diner, and she felt relieved.
When Santana and Dani's shift was over, they met up behind the counter and grabbed their stuff. "I'm so glad we're going home now," Dani grumbled. "Do you want to come to my place?"
"You know it!" Santana agreed with a smile.
They exited the diner. "What are Kurt and Rachel up to tonight?"
"Probably just crying over musicals that aren't even sad," Santana said with a shrug. Dani rolled her eyes.
And then there was a voice behind Dani. "Danielle!"
Dani immediately grabbed Santana's hand. Her father's voice never used to scare her until the night that her parents caught her in the basement. He had yelled some horrible, horrible things at her, and she'd had multiple nightmares where she woke up sweating after hearing her father's voice in her nightmare.
Dani was frozen where she was. What did he want?
She was squeezing Santana's hand as though she would die if she let it slip away. Since she clearly wasn't going to turn around, her father came around to the front of the two girls. "Danielle, where the hell have you been?"
Dani closed her eyes. "It's Dani."
"Where have you been?"
"Here," Dani answered stiffly, not letting any emotion into her voice. "But I really don't think you care."
"You just left, and we never heard from you! We had the police looking for you for months, and at one point we thought you were dead!" he growled.
"Well, now you know I'm not. Can you please go now, so I can go home?" Dani asked, her voice quivering.
"You can't just treat this as a small thing! You can't just walk away from me again!" her father exclaimed.
"Oh please, you wanted me to go! And don't try to say that you didn't, because I know you did!" Dani growled. She knew that her anger was bubbling to the surface, and she knew she wasn't going to be able to control it if it all came out like she felt it was going to do.
"Why would you think that?" he demanded. Dani felt Santana tensing next to her, but she was glad that the Latina was still holding her hand.
"Oh, it sort of came with the words 'sinner' and 'dyke' and 'corrupted'... should I continue?" Dani asked bitterly.
"Danielle... you can't—"
"It's Dani," Dani snapped at him.
Her father looked her up and down. "What happened to you? You used to be so sweet. You would never have dreamt of dying your hair, or marking your body with tattoos, and you surely never should've started liking girls."
"Hey, listen here asshole," Santana snapped, apparently finally seeing fit to join the conversation. Dani was relieved that she didn't have to answer to that. But before Santana could finish talking, Dani's dad was speaking again.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" he growled.
"You want my name, or the reason why I'm about to flip shit at you?" Santana growled. "Or we could do it the formal way. I'm Santana Lopez. I'm from a place where we don't take shit from people, and I sure as hell don't plan to take it from you, and I won't let Dani take it from you either. I'm Dani's girlfriend, and I never knew the Dani that you knew, but I do know that she is perfect the way she is right now and neither of us need to take any shit from you."
"You have no right to speak to me like that!" Dani's dad raised his voice to nearly a yell.
"I'll speak to you however I want to, and I would highly suggest that you not start yelling... unless you'd like to make a scene in front of so many people," Santana said in a level tone, gesturing around at the people that were starting to glance at the two girls and the older man.
"Danielle, it would be right for you to let me and your mother into your home so that we can discuss this all civilly and privately," the man growled quietly.
"What, so you can start yelling at me like you did a year and a half ago? I don't need to hear how much you hate who I am again, dad. I don't need you to tell me how wrong I am all over again, because who I am isn't wrong. I may like girls, and I may have dyed my hair blond, and yes I've gotten some tattoos. But this is who I am, and if you can't accept that, I really don't need to have you in my life. I'm finally in a happy part of my life, dad," Dani said quietly. "Please, just stay away from me."
Dani felt Santana rubbing circles on the back of her hand. The blonde moved around her dad and led Santana down the sidewalk. "Are you okay?" Santana asked in a hushed tone. "Okay, I know you're not, but—"
"Thank you," Dani breathed out. "You don't know how much it meant to me that you stood up for me."
"Did you really think I would stand there and let him bash on you?" Santana asked. "I love you, and I won't let anyone talk to you like that. Not your dad, not anyone."
Dani stopped and turned towards the Latina, grabbing her in a warm embrace.
"Dani..." Santana said quietly as she hugged the blonde back.
"What?"
"You know your parents probably aren't going to give up on talking to you, right?" Santana asked.
"I know, but... can we just go home and not think about it?" Dani asked.
Santana nodded. "Of course but..."
"What?" Dani asked, pulling away from the Latina and intertwining their fingers. They started walking down the sidewalk again.
"You said 'home'," Santana said quietly.
Dani realized what Santana was saying. She hadn't said "my place" like she had before. She considered her apartment their home. She blushed. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry, baby, it's got a nice ring to it. Let's go home."
Dani's past is going to be further explained in the next chapter, and it will get more and more detailed as things from her past begin to pop up. *ooh spoilers*
Like it, love it, hate it? PLEASE let me know through a sweet (or not sweet) lil review, PM or tweet at BrittzandTana! :) Love hearing from you guys all the time! Glad you guys have been reviewing and reading and liking the story :)
Final note about this chapter... the character Isabelle... she won't be trying to steal Dani or anything like that... she's just a character I decided to throw in because I was bored :P
Goodnight beautifuls! Stay strong, stay perfect, stay lovely and stay BEAUTIFUL! :* (Also Happy Halloween! Since I won't be updating tomorrow... :) Hope you get some nice sugary treats and funny tricks!)